Origin of the species: Blurbys

Since I just released a game featuring them heavily (Bok's Expedition, which is based on the first Blurby-focused story I wrote waaaay back in 1997 or so), I figured it'd be a good time to go into where I got the idea for them.

Spoiler alert for the dumbasses in the back eating paste: it's got nothing to do with fucking Kirby.

Seriously, I am beyond sick and tired of people assuming that every single one of my round-bodied species is based on Kirby in some way.  Or worse that they "are Kirbys."  Yes, the K'hyurbhis (another of the main Nummorrian species) WERE based on Kirby originally, and for a long time their design still looked a lot like Kirby except white (and later on, with spikes and facial markings.  More recently they've gotten a different foot design, visible nostrils, and whiskers instead of those vague Kirby-esque cheek markings.)  But not everything with a round-ish body is Kirby, or even Kirby-based.  Seriously, take off your Kirby-tinted glasses for a second so I can punch you in the face with the real origin of Blurbys and its distinct lack of Kirby.  Actually, on second thought, leave them on -- I wouldn't mind breaking those particular glasses.

Of course, just because Blurbys weren't based on Kirby doesn't mean they weren't originally based on anything.

Nope... Blurbys were originally based on an enemy from Yoshi's Island:

I have no idea what the smaller ones appearing as random enemies throughout a few levels were called, or if they even had a name, but there was also a boss version a bit later on:

...and that jumbo-sized version was named "Marching Milde."

So yes, Blurbys were based not on Kirby but on Marching Milde... or whatever the smaller versions were called (I've actually never seen a listing of official names for most of the Yoshi's Island enemies, now that I think about it.)

Looking at Blurbys, you can probably see the resemblance.  Way waaaaay more of a resemblance than to Kirby at least.  They're both white, and they they both have the "red cheek marks + wide mouth + small eyes" look.  For many years Blurbys had the "lump feet" like Marching Milde too (though they were colored red), which is something Marching Milde and Kirby have in common.

Blurbys don't have the "nose" of the Yoshi enemies (never have, actually -- that was an intentional design change way back in the day because kid-me thought noses looked dumb), and they of course have arms, which I'm guessing is why nobody ever thought to link Blurbys with Marching Milde before.  But there actually were some early Blurby drawings with no arms, and sometimes they'd randomly gain and lose arms depending on... whether they needed them at the moment or not, I suppose.  That was only really early on, though -- like when I was in 3rd or 4th grade.  Later Blurby drawings all had arms, at first the "flipper-arms" like Kirby (or like the Pokémon Jigglypuff, in case anyone randomly forgets that this is not a feature exclusive to Kirby), but starting around 2013-2014 I started drawing them with actual arm arms, complete with clawed fingers.  This was the same point where I ditched the "lump feet" for almost every Nummorrian species, replacing them with their current clawed foot design:

They've also become a bit less round and more lumpy-oval over the years, because I wanted a bit more variety in body shapes rather than all the "round" creatures being perfectly round (K'hyurbhis have shifted a bit too, though they still usually show up as round-ish.)

Right about now one of the dipshits in the back has run out of paste and decided to sniff some glue instead.  And, now that they're lacking brain cells even more than before, they're probably asking "but but but... if they're not based on Kirby, why does their name rhyme with Kirby?"  Because we all know Herbie, Furby, and the Kentucky Derby are all totally related to Kirby...

Much like the above examples, "Blurby" rhyming with "Kirby" is nothing but a coincidence.  The name "Blurby" actually was derived from the word "blubbery."  They've always been defined by being heavy and having a layer of blubber (they were the original users of the Blubber Slam attack after all!)

Basically, by removing and rearranging some letters like so...

Blubbery --> Blubbery --> Blubry --> Blurby

...I ended up with the name "Blurby."  I'm fairly sure I rearranged the letters (to Blurby instead of just shortening "blubbery" to Blubry) mainly because I didn't want them to be mistakenly called "blueberries."  Yeah, kid-me was concerned with strange things sometimes -- never thought for a second that I'd have the whole Legion of Dumb mistaking them for Kirby, but was immediately worried about people calling them blueberries, of all things.

So... now you know the full story of where Blurbys came from.  And now you have no excuse for calling them "Kirbys" or assuming they were based on Kirby.

From this point forward, I'm just going to assume anyone who brings up the K-word in association with Blurbys or Bok's Expedition is just... a very severely mentally-disabled child, and rather than getting pissed off at them for (perhaps intentionally) being a dipshit, I'll just pat them on the head and be like "yeah, that's right little Timmy, everything is Kirby.  Now take your Kirby pills and finish your Kirby homework before the Kirby bus comes to take you home."